(oh? 


ent {O71 | 


Young People 


and 


the World’s 


Evangelization 


President John Franklin Goucher 











HERE are some bless- 

ings promised in God’s 
word to old people, 
<< and others to those in 
) middle life, but young 
people are the pre- 
ferred class in God’s providence, for 
every blessing promised in the Bible 
may be successively theirs. When a 
child is converted it is a double work 
of grace, namely, the salvation of a 
life and the salvation of a lifetime, 
with its untold opportunities and in- 
fluence. Polycarp was martyred at 
ninety-five. But he was converted at 
nine, and had given eighty-six years 
of blessed service. 





Conversions most 
frequent 


It is not an accident that young Youtn 
people are the chief objective of the 
scheme of salvation. In youth the 
heart is like wax in its impressible- 
ness, like bronze in its retentiveness. 
The years in which conversion usu- 
ally occurs are between twelve and 
twenty. Statistics show the year of 
most frequent conversion is the six- 
teenth for girls and the seventeenth 
for boys. Those years passed, the 
prospects decrease, and after twenty- 
two the probability is very small, for 
over ninety per cent. of the members 
of the evangelical churches in Amer- 
ica were converted before they were 
twenty-three years of age. Less than 


five per cent. of those who leave col- 
lege unconverted ever commit them- 
selve to a Christian life. 

Practical philosophers and _psy- 
chologists no longer busy themselves 
about probation after death, but with 
how far the tendency to fixedness of 
habit reduces the probability of ever 
initiating the Christian life after the 
twenty-fifth year has passed. The 
thought of the past concerned itself 
with the Divine decrees, and threw 
the responsibility upon God; the 
thought of the present is largely con- 
cerned with personal duty, and throws 
the responsibility upon man. 


Life Choices 
Made 


Pasta tn The latest psychology teaches 
that our impulses and_ instincts 
ripen in a certain order, and if the 
proper objects are provided at the 
proper time, habits of conduct and 
character are formed which last for 
life; but if neglected the impulse dies 
out, and our most earnest efforts meet 
with no response.” Professor Star- 
buck asserts and supports his state- 
ment with many facts and figures, 
that “conversion is a distinctively 
adolescent phenomenon.” Professor 
Coe says, ‘‘ Conversion, or some 
equivalent personalizing of religion, 
is a normal part of adolescent growth, 
and a deeply personal life choice is 
now easier than either before or 
after.’ The normal occupation dur- 
ing adolescence is consciously or sub- 
consciously to make life choices. 
Young people must be the prime 
objective in the world’s evangeliza- 
tion, for usually before or during 
adolescence, if ever, the foundations 


2 


of a Christian life are laid, the stu- 
dent life is determined, and the trend 
for greatest usefulness is established. 

If for thirty consecutive years all 
the young people in the world be- 
tween ten and twenty-three years of 
age could be reached by Christian 
teaching, the world’s evangelization 
would be accomplished. Five suc- 
cessive generations of young people, 
from ten to seventeen years of age— 
during the years when most respon- 
sive to the claims of religion—would 
have been under the influence of 
gospel truth; and five successive gen- 
erations, between sixteen and twenty- 
three years of age—the second 
period most determinative of a re- 
ligious life—would have had similar 
influence. Within these periods 
nearly every person assumes a per- 
sonal relation to religion which he 
makes final. The vast majority of 
those who are now twenty-two years 
old, and not already Christians, of 
whom probably less than two per cent. 
would be converted under the most 
favorable conditions, will have passed 
to their final account within thirty 
years, and the world would be occu- 
pied with those who had faced the 
responsibility of accepting or reject- 
ing Christ, during the most favorable 
periods of their lives, and the world 
would be evangelized. 


Qualifications of 
Youth 
for 


Young people are not discriminated &..,,.. 
‘against in the outworking of God's 
purpose. They receive from Christ 
the commission to ‘ go,” which is 
never withheld from those who 
‘““come.”’ As they necessarily consti- 


3 


tute the chief subjects of the world’s 
evangelization, they must largely fur- 
nish the agents and accessories for its 
accomplishment. Their number would 
of itself make them an important 
factor in this great work, but their 
quality is more important than their 
quantity. They are acquisitive and at 
an age when, if ever, they will en- 
throne God, and lay the foundation of 
devotion and liberality. They most 
readily acquire strange languages, are 
enthusiastic, aggressive and coura- 
geous, rarely pessimistic, have endur- 
ance and improvableness. They are 
the part of the army most easily 
mobilized, for they are not as yet 
articulated with society, and high 
enterprise appeals to their spirit. 
They are flexible and easily adapt 
themselves to changing conditions. 
They furnish the very material for a 
successful propaganda, and offer the 
rational field for recruiting the agents 
and developing the supporters. 


Importance of 
Early 


‘rane Tf the leaders are to be truly great, 
their training must be commenced 
when young, that they may discover 
their aptitudes, develop their endow- 
ments, gather detailed and compre- 
hensive knowledge, acquire skill, and 
be adjusted to their mission. It is 
more than a coincidence that during 
adolescence, when men and women 
are most responsive to the call of God, 
they are also most available as agents, 
most teachable, and then, if ever, the 
habits of devotion and liberality are 
best established. 

Every one is commissioned to be 
Christ’s witness “to the uttermost 


4 


parts of the world.” The burden of 
proof is with each one to show how 
he is justified in not being personally 
at the front. If that is clear, he is 
under positive requirement to be at 
the front representatively so far as 
possible. To hold the life line is as 
important and obligatory as to go 
into the breakers. 


Material 
Resources 


If adequate accessories are to be 
available it must be through training 
the young people to practical sym- 
pathy and personal, proportionate co- 
operation. In two decades or less the 
$25,000,000,000 now in the hands 
of the church members of the United 
States will be $50,000,000,000, or 
more, and this sum, whatever it may 
be, will be subject to the administra- 
tion of those who to-day are in their 
formative age. ‘Those to whom it is 
now entrusted will be in eternity, 
facing the most serious aspects of the 
question how it was they had the di- 
rection of so much capital and left it 
uninvested for the Kingdom. Now, 
if ever, those who are to possess it 
must be taught the duty and joy of 
systematic and proportionate codper- 
ation with the cause of God, that it is 
their obligation to tithe their posses- 
sions, and their opportunity to con- 
tribute so much as they can, not from 
impulse or as a gratuity, but ‘‘ as good 
stewards of the manifold grace of 
God,” that at His coming Christ may 
have His own with proper use. Un- 
consecrated wealth is an offense to 
God, and a canker and curse to the 
holder. ‘‘ Your gold and your silver 
is cankered and the rust of them shall 
be a witness against you.” 


5 


If all the members of the Church 
were devoted to hastening the king- 
dom of God, the church militant 
would be the church triumphant, and 
the problem of home missions would 
be solved in a decade. There is 
nothing more contagious than Chris- 
tian personality. 

Resources in 
ife 

Eighteen and two-third centuries 
have passed since Christ commanded 
His disciples to preach His gospel to 
every creature, yet only one of the 
entire membership of the evangelical 
churches of the United States has 
gone into the foreign field for every 
5.500 who stay at home, and only 
1,500 of their ordained ministers are 
engaged in foreign work, while the 
other 18,000,000 members and 
122,000 ministers are living their 
lives in the home field. 

If the evangelical churches were to 
send to the foreign fields two thou- 
sand missionaries a year for, say 
thirty years, the world could be evan- 
gelized before the close of the first 
third of this twentieth century. That 
would mean, after about twelve 
years a standing army of, say 20,000 
laboring among the 1,000,000,000 
who know not God nor Jesus Christ 
whom He hath sent, or one mission- 
ary for every 50,000 persons to be 
reached. That would be sufficient, if 
properly supported, to develop and 
give direction to the native agencies 
and assure success. 

This is not impossible, nor would 
it make a disastrous or unreasonable 
draft on the home churches. ‘There 
are nearly twice two thousand young 

6 


people, Student Volunteers, in the 
colleges and universities of the United 
States to-day who are pledged for 
this work and eager to go. If the 
demand were manifest their number 
would be largely increased. Two 
thousand a year would be only one 
out of eleven of the young people 
who go out from our colleges and uni- 
versities, or about one out of every 
sixteen leaving our institutions of 
higher education annually. 


Evangelization 
Possible 


To carry out this moderate but 
sufficient propaganda would require, 
say, $30,000,000 annually. This 
should be no serious inconvenience. 
The people of the United States 
spend, shall we say waste, $11,000,- 
000 a year on chewing gum,—one 
third enough to save the world. 
Thirty million dollars per year would 
be only three twenty-fifths of one per 
cent., or twelve cents out of each hun- 
dred dollars now in the hands of 
the evangelical church members in 
this country. What might be done 
by reasonable sacrifice? The young 
people could provide this amount 
themselves if they had a mind so to 
do. An average of one cent per day 
from the more than five million mem- 
bers enrolled in the young people’s 
societies of the churches in the United 
States, and one cent per week from 
the something over fourteen millions 
gathered in the Sunday-schools, 
would supply almost the money nec- 
essary. 


Education 
Essential 


It is not unreasonable to believe 
that the world’s evangelization will 


7 


be accomplished by the young people 
when they are properly educated. 
When Frederick the Great heard of 
the defeat of his army on a certain 
occasion, he exclaimed, ‘‘ We must 
educate.” Burke said, ‘‘ Education 
is the cheap defense of nations.” 
The Church, like Hannah, the wife 
of Elkanah, must bring her youth to 
the temple and dedicate them to be 
educated for and in the ministry of 
the sanctuary. Then she can say, 


_ like Christ, ‘‘ Of them which Thou 


gavest me have I lost none.” ‘The 
prophecy is, ‘‘ All thy children shall 
be taught of the Lord.” 

If ‘child’ means one who is not 
yet hardened into maturity, the proph- 
ecy that a “child shall lead them ” 
may be fulfilled in this great work of 
bringing the world to Christ. The 
soldiers who have won the great bat- 
tles of modern times were young men, 
many of them still in their teens. 
General Grant said in his Fourth of 
July address at Hamburg, ‘‘ What 
saved the Union was the coming for- 
ward of the young men.” 


Achievements of 


Youth 
in 


History 


Patrick Henry, by rallying the 
young men of the Virginia House of 
Delegates, secured the passage of a 
resolution sustaining the independence 
of the colonies and set a standard for 
the new world. 

The French Academy, which for 
two and a half centuries has been so 
potent a factor in shaping the brilliant 
literature of that people, had its be- 
ginning in the ardent longings and 
aspirations of young men, the oldest 
of whom, with perhaps one exception, 
were under twenty-seven years of age. 


8 


Pitt entered Parliament when he 
was hardly twenty-two, and was Prime 
Minister of Great Britain before he 
was twenty-five. 

The typical missionary, who out- 
lined the ideal and set the pattern, He 
who undertook the most stupendous 
work ever enterprised, the work of 
reconciling God and man, said at the 
age of thirty-three, ‘‘ It is finished,” 
and returned to Heaven from whence 
He came. 

Saul officially witnessed the stoning 
of Stephen at twenty-seven, and a 
short time after was commissioned by 
Christ to go bear His name far hence 
to the Gentiles. 

Timothy was but fourteen when 
converted and eighteen when called to 
become the assistant to the great 
apostle. 

Adoniram Judson was but twenty- 
two when he resolved to devote him- 
self to foreign mission work, and 
started for India at twenty-four. 

Robert Morrison was but twenty- 
two when he was accepted by the 
London Missionary Society and com- 
missioned to open Christian work in 
China. 

David Livingstone was twenty-one, 
Jacob Chamberlain nineteen, and 
Bishop Thoburn only seventeen when 
called to foreign mission work. These 
ages are not exceptional, but illustrate 
the rule. ‘‘ Wherever in history we 
mark a great movement of humanity, 
we commonly detect a young man at 
its head or at its heart.” 

It is quite probable that when this 
world is evangelized, it will be through 
the agency of young people, occupy- 


9 


ing the firing-line, seeking and teach- 
ing the young people while the rest of 
the Church, whose training com- 
menced as young people, will supply 
with equal devotion the accessories for 
maintenance and expansion, every one 
giving his tithe in kind, sympathy, 
prayer, thought, time and money, as 
each is possible. 


Agencies for World- 
evanvel. It is not only possible that the young 
“"""" people will accomplish the world’s 
evangelization, but the agencies are 
well organized and the process far ad- 
vanced. ‘The trend of the evangelical 
churches was to emphasize, through 
organized effort, the importance of 
work for young people; latterly the. 
trend is to emphasize work by young 
people. ‘Their organizations for de- 
veloping knowledge, loyalty and min- 
istries have had a quiet but striking 
evolution until their comprehensive- 
ness, possibilities and articulation with 
the great work of the world’s evangel- 
ization are startling and prophetic. 


Sunday-schools 

First, as to number and date of or- 
ganization, is the Sunday-school. In 
its earlier stage it gathered poor chil- 
dren, and them exclusively, and taught 
the elements of education and primary 
religious truths. Subsequently it 
sought to gather all children and youth 
for instruction in Bible truths and per- 
sonal obligations. Its system, scope 
and efficiency have improved, looking 
more and more to securing practical 
and immediate results in personal ex- 
perience and effectiveness. 

There are over fourteen millions 
gathered into the Sunday-schools of 


Io 


America. It is estimated that of these 
twenty per cent. are converted during 
their attendance, and twenty per cent. 
afterward. ‘That leaves sixty per cent. 
to be accounted for; but the forty per 
cent. who profess conversion furnish 
eighty-seven per cent. of the members 
of the evangelical churches, and only 
thirteen per cent. are gathered from 
those who never had Sunday-school 
instruction. ‘Lhe Sunday-school teach- 
ers constitute the vanguard of the 
Kingdom. 

If our Sunday-school scholars were 
systematically trained to give an 
average of one cent per week to 
the world’s evangelization, it would 
amount to over seven million dollars, 
or be nearly one and one-half times as 
much as the entire Protestant Church 
of America is giving for foreign mis- 
sions. Systematic work has com- 
menced in this most promising field. 
The sixteenth or seventeenth is the 
year of maximum probability for con- 
version, and the aim and effort is be- 
coming more defined on the part of 
the Sunday-schools to see that every 
scholar is awakened, converted and 
started in systematic codperation with 
the Church before that year is passed. 
In 1901 there were more than 2,000 
normal classes, and 18,000 conven- 
tions held among the workers in these 
Sunday-schools, and over 200,000 
joined the evangelical churches from 


the ranks of the scholars. 


The Student 
Young 


The Young Men’s Christian Asso- Men's 
ciation was organized in 1844. Its Association 
primary object was to look after young 
men, who are subjected to varied, 


subtle and serious temptations in our 


Il 


“homeless cities.” Everything is a 
part of the Universe of God, and any- 
thing which is well born becomes ar- 
ticulated with His great purpose. So 
the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion has naturally broadened its scope, 
multiplied its departments of work 
and enriched its ministries. 

The International Committee of 
the Young Men’s Christian Associa- 
tion commenced to develop ‘“ The 
Student Young Men’s Christian As- 
sociation’ work in 1877. The move- 
ment now includes nearly every lead- 
ing college and university in North 
America. ‘‘ Its object is to lead stu- 
dents to be intelligent and loyal dis- 
ciples of Jesus Christ, to train them 
in individual and association Christian 
work, and to influence them to place 
their lives where they can best serve 
their generation.” Through secre- 
taries, training conferences, Bible, mis- 
sion, normal and other study classes, 
special literature and deputation men, 
its work has been systematically 
pushed until it has come to be a chief 
influence in our leading institutions for 
promoting the Kingdom in the lives 
of the students. In state and unde- 
nominational institutions it has well 
nigh the monopoly of this work. 
Largely through its efficiency the col- 
leges and universities have come to be 
the most Christian communities in the 
United States and Canada. “ Taking 
the young men of North America as a 
whole, not more than eight per cent., 
or one in twelve, are Christians. In 
1902 a careful census taken in three 
hundred and fifty-six of our colleges 
and universities showed that of 83,000 


12 


young men, 52 per cent., or more than 
one-half of the student body, were 
members of evangelical churches. 
Twenty-five years previous the pro- 
portion was less than one-third.”— 
John R. Mott. 

The virility of this movement makes 
it a great deal more than a home mis- 
sionary organization. The student 
type of religion is manly and practical. 
“Their religious lite is based upon 
a personal study of the Scriptures and 
Christian evidences, and not least help- 
ful in shaping their faith has been the 
influence of the presentation and study 
of the facts of Christian missions.” 
For years past students have been the 
largest purchasers of missionary 
books. They believe, with Bishop 
Whately, “ If our religion is not true 
we ought to change it. If it is true 
we are bound to propagate what we 
believe to be the truth.” 


The Student 


“The Student Volunteer Move- 
ment for Foreign Missions,” a special 
branch of this work, was organized in 
1888. It works among the most 
potential class in the Christian world 
and seeks to bring them to the high- 
est service in ministry to others. Their 
appeal is to conscience, conviction, 
consecration, courage and character. 
The volunteers are among those of 
strongest personality, largest equip- 
ment and greatest efficiency. ‘Through 
this agency about 10,000 students 
have volunteered in the past seventeen 
years. A large proportion of these 
are still at college preparing, but over 
4,000 are actually in the field and 
many more would be if the Church 


13 


Volunteer 
Movement 


had been ready to send them. A re- 
cruiting agency has thus been offered 
the Church, the like of which she had 


never known. 

The World’s Student 

rederation The World’s Student Christian 
Federation, organized in 1895, in- 
cludes eleven national organizations, 
over 1,800 separate associations or 
unions and about ninety per cent. of 
the institutions of higher education of 
the entire world, with a total member- 
ship of over 100,000 students and 
professors. An associated Christian 
effort has thus united more students 
around the cross of the conquering 
Jesus than any other inter-collegiate 
organization, athletic, literary, fra- 
ternal or political. ‘‘ As go the uni- 
versities so go the nations.” 

This Federation is concerned, in 
purpose at least, with the moral and 
religious welfare of two-thirds of the 
young men of the human race. The 
movement is now looking toward the 
8,000 secondary schools of the United 
States and Canada with their 275,000 
boys as the key to the colleges and 
universities. Of the 381,982 mem- 
bers of the Young Men’s Christian 
Association in this country 54,739 are 


boys under sixteen years of age. 

The Young Women's 

association The American Committee of the 
Young Women’s Christian Associa- 
tion, working along similar lines, with 
similar results, was organized in 1886, 
and numbers 671 associations with a 
membership of 100,252. 

Young People’s 

Societies The Young People who never go 

to college far exceed in number those 
who do. They also are organizing 


14 


and being trained for and enlisted in 
this great work. ‘This indicates a 
third line of preparation for the 
world’s evangelization. 

The Young People’s Society of 
Christian Endeavor, the Epworth 
League, the Baptist Young People’s 
Union, the Christian Union of United 
Brethren, the Young People’s Union 
of the United Presbyterian Church, 
the Brotherhood of Andrew and 
Philip, and other smaller associations, 
include an aggregate membership, not 
counting any twice, of somewhat over 
5,000,000, or about 28 per cent. of 
the evangelical church members of 
the United States. 

Horizon and inspiration, purpose 
and uplift, have come to the young 
people through the great conventions 
held by these various organizations. 
Growth is as natural to young people 
as enthusiasm. It is significant that 
their conventions are approximating 
the Conference idea. They are stress- 
ing more and more Bible, Mission and 
normal study, study of the various 
fields, problems, phases and methods 
of Church life and work. Their pro- 
grams provide for less rhetoric and 
more facts. “Those who have brought 
things to pass are invited to contribute 
of their experiences, explain methods 
and answer questions. In their local 
organizations they associate young 
people together for specific religious 
purposes, spiritual, missionary, char- 
itable, literary and social. They make 
the young people accessible to syste- 
matic instruction and develop organ- 
ized and individual effort, skill and 
efficiency and beget a sense of personal 


15 


The Young 
Missionary 
Movement 


responsibility and achievement. They 
have vast possibilities and are gradual- 
ly occupying them. 

Only about two per cent. of the 
people of the United States, who reach 
twenty-three years of age, without a 
clear personal identification with 
Christ and His Church, ever become 
Christians. ‘Che Young People’s So- 
cieties are developing a spirit of co- 
operation with the churches to see by 
all possible means that every one who 
can be reached is thoroughly indoc- 
trinated in the Scriptures, established 
in habits of proportionate giving and 
personally identified with evangelical 
work before he reaches that age. 

Technically the term Young People 
applies only till the end of adolescence, 
or say, through the twenty-second 
year. It requires an average of, say, 
approximately 30,000 young people 
and 70,000 children to be recruited 
every week through the year to main- 
tain the membership of the Young 
People’s Societies and Sunday-schools 
at their present enrollment, so the 
Young People’s Societies present a 
constant demand for well trained lead- 
ers, and the work of the Sunday-school 
creates similar requirements with 
growing urgency. 

People’s 

The fourth stage in this develop- 
ment of organized young people’s 
agencies for the world’s evangeliza- 
tion is the “‘ Young People’s Mission- 
ary Movement,” which was born of 
an oppressive sense of need that the 
ever changing membership of the 
Young People’s Societies and Sunday- 
schools should have trained leaders, 


16 


up to date alike in the wisdom of the 
past and demands of the present, 
capable to give direction to the sys- 
tematic and practical study of the 
Word and work of God. The most 
successful workers in these fields keenly 
recognize this need. The Young 
People’s Missionary Movement has 
its Executive Committee of fifteen, 
approved or selected by the Mission- 
ary Boards of the various Churches, 
its Board of Council and its Secretary 
with well equipped offices. 


A Missionary 


Clearing 


Its organization was not premedi- House 


tated, but providential. It is purely 
supplementary to the work of the 
Church Universal and in no sense in- 
tended to supplant any branch of it. 
It stands for the broadest catholicity 
through an enriching and enriched de- 
nominationalism. Each church may 
best train its own leaders, but where 
can the leaders of these leaders be 
trained so efficiently as in an Inter- 
denominational Conference by de- 
nominational specialists? This is the 
object of the Young People’s Mission- 
ary Movement. It brings together 
specialists from the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, the Sunday- 
school, the Secretariate of the various 
Mission Boards, returned mission- 
aries, the leading educational institu- 
tions and representative pulpits, to 
give instruction in its conferences. It 
is a clearing-house of facts and ideas, 
a school of methods, a dynamo of in- 
spiration for both home and foreign 
mission workers, where each labors 
for all and all serve each. 


Conferences for 


This fourth development marks 
the equipping and constructive stage 


17 


Leaders 


through which key-workers may be 
selected, enriched and trained more 
thoroughly than ever before to lead 
in the specific work of organizing and 
developing the young people through 
their own denominational societies 
and Sunday-schools. Though the 
first preliminary meeting, out of which 
has grown this organization, was held 
in December, 1901, it has conducted 
eight Conferences, attended by over 
twenty-two hundred workers among 
young people from about thirty de- 
nominations, and secured a permanent 
home for its central annual Confer- 
ence at Silver Bay. 

In response to numerous invitations, 
plans are being perfected to hold four 
of its Conferences next year, one each 
at Silver Bay, on Lake George; Ashe- 
ville, North Carolina; Lake Geneva, 
Wisconsin; and Whitby, Canada. 

Five Missionary Conferences or 
‘Summer Schools,” after the Silver 
Bay type, have been held during the 
last two years in Great Britain. Mr. 
S. Earl Taylor participated by special 
request in two of these in 1905. Ar- 
rangements are in progress for four 
similar Conferences in the summer of 
1906. 

A special three days’ Conference 
has been called for Silver Bay next 
July to discuss plans for comprehen- 
sive and graded Missionary instruc- 
tion in the Sunday-school. 

No one can estimate the importance 
of this organization which promises to 
become a movement of movements. 

The Interdenominational Mission- 
ary Institute is an interesting out- 
growth of the Movement’s Summer 


18 


Conferences and promises large con- 
structive influence. These institutes 
assemble delegates from the Sunday- 
schools and Young People’s Societies 
surrounding metropolitan centers. 
Their object is to train leaders who 
will be able to organize and direct 
Bible or Mission Study Classes in 
every congregation, Sunday-school and 
Young People’s Society within the im- 
mediate territory. 

Forty-six institutes have been held 
with an aggregate attendance of 17,- 
365 delegates and half as many more 
are scheduled for the next few months, 
four of which will be on the Pacific 
Coast. 

During the year 1904-05 sixty 
thousand young people were enrolled 
in Classes systematically studying the 
Mission text-books prepared by this 
Movement and during the first three 
and one-half months of 1905-06 an 
equal number have been enrolled 
which suggests a large growth for the 
year. 


Preparation of 
Missionary 
Programs 


Another important field of useful- 
ness for this movement is in the 
preparation of suitable Missionary 
Programs, material and literature for 
the Sunday-schools. 

A set of carefully selected educa- 
tional curios from Japan have been 
arranged for the primary department 
and similar boxes to illustrate the 
study of Africa and India are being 
selected. It has prepared a series of 
Programs and illustrated accessories 
for the Intermediate Department and 
a Manual of missionary work in the 
various departments of the Sunday- 


19 


school for leaders and teachers is in 
preparation. 

This material placed at the disposal 
of denominational missionary secreta- 
ries for adaptation to denominational 
needs and used through denomina- 
tional channels, will be of great 
educational value in directing the 
thought of the fourteen millions of 
Sunday-school scholars to the needs of 
the mission fields. 

Similar, though more elaborate and 
advanced material, prepared for the 
use of Young People’s Societies may 
give direction to the five million mem- 
bers of these organizations in a pro- 
gressive study of the world field. 

etn: A form of service that has already 
proven of great value is the prepara- 
tion of suitable text-books for the use 
of Young People’s Mission Study 
Classes. To meet the demand for 
such text-books the Movement, 
through its Editorial Committee, is 
preparing the Forward Mission Study 
Courses. These Courses, as at pres- 
ent outlined, comprise twenty volumes 
written by leading authorities on mis- 
sions and present the needs and condi- 
tions of both home and foreign mis- 
sion fields. 

Missionary "The need and demand for books of 
this type are indicated by the fact that 
the publications of the Movement are 
being used and distributed by thirty- 
two Missionary Boards in the United 
States, Canada, Great Britain, New 
Zealand, Australia, South America, 
South Africa and India. The Move- 
ment has prepared and published seven 


Mission Study Text-Books, of which 


20 


165,000 volumes have been sold. It 
has selected and issued six Libraries, 
including two General Libraries and 
four Reference Libraries, the aggre- 
gate sales of which have been 155,947 
volumes. 

The leaflets, pamphlets and other 
accessories issued to assist Mission 
Study and Missionary Committees ap- 
proach a total of 500,000. It has also 
prepared and published outline maps 
of different countries and various sets 
of Mission charts. 

The selection and preparation of 
Libraries suitable for Juniors and 
the younger Sunday-school scholars 
are now receiving the attention of 
the Library Committee. 


Denominational 
Young 

The greatest work of the Young 473P°* 
People’s Missionary Movement is not 
as an independent organization, but 
as a servant of the denominational 
boards whose representatives consti- 
tute its Executive Committee and 
Board of Counsel. 

The leading denominations are rec- 
ognizing the opportunity and obliga- 
tion which these converging lines of 
organized young people’s work create. 
A number of Missionary Boards have 
standing or special Committees to su- 
pervise the Young People’s Mission- 
ary work within their denominations. 
Eleven Secretaries are giving all their 
time and ten others partial time to 
foster and develop the study and work 
of Missions among the young people 
of their churches. 

Achievements in 


One 
Denomi- 


The following facts concerning the 257°" 
work of the Young People’s Depart- 


21 


ment of a single denomination give an 
encouraging insight into the possibil- 
ities of this work when fully developed 
in all Boards and Churches. Every 
Sunday-school of this denomination is 
organized into a Sunday-school Mis- 
sionary Society with provisions for a 
monthly meeting and a missionary an- 
niversary in each school. They gave 
last year $509,000 for missions and 
are showing a healthy growth in intel- 
ligent sympathy and practical aid. 

The Young People’s Society of this 
denomination occupies high ground in 
the cause of world-wide evangeliza- 
tion. The constitution requires a 
standing committee to be appointed in 
every Chapter, which committee un- 
der the chairmanship of a special Vice- 
President supervises the department 
of world evangelization, including 
mission study, church benevolences 
and various forms of missionary activ- 
ity. Mission study is a regular feature 
of its educational plan. In 1904-’05 
the Secretary of the Young People’s 
Department of its Missionary Society 
gave direction to 1308 mission study 
classes with an enrollment of 17,264 
systematically studying the prescribed 
courses, and a great many classes were 
not officially reported. Since rgor1 
. over 42,000 have been enrolled in its 
mission study classes. 

Its Missionary Society has a Young 
People’s Secretary and a Missionary 
Editor with well organized offices, 
both directed by a standing committee 
of the Board. They are creating and 
circulating literature; planning for 
and assisting at conventions; prepar- 
ing and displaying missionary exhib- 


22 


its; conducting correspondence, direct- 
ing student campaigns and campaign- 
ers. In one year, under the direction 
of the Young People’s Secretary, 
thirty colleges were visited and con- 
ferences held to train campaigners, 
and one hundred and thirty-two cam- 
paigners were placed in the field to 
organize and conduct mission and 
Bible study classes, circulate literature 
and locate Missionary Libraries. 
During the year, cards, leaflets and 
pamphlets, aggregating 785,000 
pieces, were printed and sent out by 
the Young People’s Department in 
the interests of Mission study and 
stewardship. In addition to these its 
outgoing mail has included 151,000 
personal and circular letters. . 
The Obligation 


Opport 
Each of the four great movements, sit) of the 


the Sunday-school, the Young Men’s °?""*” 
and Young Women’s Christian Asso- 
ciations, the Young People’s Societies, 
and the Young People’s Missionary 
Movement, has its distinctive field and 
commission, but they naturally over- 
lap and supplement each other. All 
are the legitimate children of the 
Church which begat and nurtures 
them. She rejoices in their develop- 
ment. Their success is her honor, and 
they are honored in being able to aid 
with growing efficiency in preparing 
her for the coming of Him who is 
Lord of All. 

The church which neglects her 
young people “ proves herself improv- 
ident and must neither wonder nor 
complain if Heaven leaves her nothing 
to nurse but her own desolation.” 

What is true of the churches in the 


23 


United States in their relation to this 
great problem, is in a measure true of 
all the churches and lands in Christen- 
dom. 

Nothing is accomplished without 
vision. Those through whom the 
Spirit of God has its most effective 
work are the Seers, those who see the 
vision of God’s purpose and of human 
opportunity. They have the first qual- 
ification for leadership in the world’s 
evangelization. 

We are now living in the dispensa- 
tion of the Holy Spirit, when it was 
promised, “‘ Your young men shall see 
visions,” and “the spirit of teaching 
shall be given to your sons and daugh- 
ters.” Surely, ‘‘ The light that never 
was on sea or land”? is the illumina- 
tion of these organized activities of 
the young people. 

Their responsibility and their goal 
is the world’s evangelization. Their 
challenge is to the host of God. Their 
activity and development give hope 
that in and through the young people, 
who rapidly transform knowledge in- 
to power, and are teeming with that 
joyous fulness of creative life which 
radiates thoughts as inspirations and 
dissipates “ the torpor of narrow vis- 
ion and indolent ignorance ” by the ir- 
resistible power of the broad human 
gladness found in a life of unselfish 
love of their kind, the desire of God 
shall be realized, ‘‘ Who will have all 
men to be saved and come unto the 
knowledge of the truth.” 


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par 


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YOUNG PEOPLE’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
166 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK 


The Willett Press 
New York 


